


Fireplaces and Stockings and Beds, Oh My!

by shopfront



Category: Nikki & Nora
Genre: F/F, First Christmas, Fluff, Reminiscing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 19:07:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5467718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nikki and Nora celebrate their first Christmas Eve in their new home by remembering a Christmas long past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fireplaces and Stockings and Beds, Oh My!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mammothluv](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mammothluv/gifts).



The booze combined with the heat spilling from their fireplace was making Nora feel pleasantly warm and silly as she raised her shotglass in a toast.  
  
"Here's to our very first, very Merry Christmas in our beautiful, new, and finally fully repainted home," she said, before tipping back the shot with a dramatic grimace and then holding it back out to Nikki for a refill.  
  
Nikki just laughed and took the glass back, blithely ignoring Nora's protests. She was curled up under the Christmas tree with a bottle of whisky in her hands, a Santa hat slipping down over one ear, and her hair was tangled and glowing in the firelight. She looked like all of Nora's Christmases come at once.  
  
"How did I get so lucky?" Nora asked softly, leaning in for a kiss and somehow missing and ending up in Nikki's lap instead.  
  
Still chuckling to herself, Nikki just put the bottle and glasses aside and reached down to stroke Nora's cheek.  
  
"I think you carried my bags for Christmas," she said, smiling fondly.  
  
Nora just hummed happily and turned her face into the warmth of Nikki's leg, playing with the hem of her pants leg.  
  
"Was just your bellhop," she muttered sleepily, closing her eyes and letting the warmth and the smell of pine pull her down towards sleep.  
  
"But what a wonderful bellhop you were," Nikki said quietly, voice tumbling down from above as her other hand settled in Nora's hair.

  


........

  


_Years earlier_  
  
"You have got to be kidding me!" Nora grumbled under her breath as she wrestled their suitcases roughly through the too-narrow door frame of the suite.  
  
"Oh yes, I think this will do nicely!"  
  
Nikki's voice and twinkling laugh floated back through the room just as a suitcase wheel caught on the frame and very nearly sent Nora swearing head over heels.  
  
"I'm fine, just silently screaming under the weight of all this luggage, nobody help or anything."  
  
Nora huffed and finally settled the suitcases upright against the wall by the entrance. She swung off the leather bag draped across her body, one hand rubbing at where the edge of the strap had pressed painfully into the skin of her collarbone, and then paused with the bag hovered in her other outstretched hand.  
  
She could just leave it there, but it would be precarious on top of the other bags. Or she could drop it straight on the rough wooden floor....  
  
Her fancy new partner seemed like she might be the type to be less than pleased though, and after a long morning that was the last thing they needed to deal with. With a sigh, Nora slipped the bag strap back onto her shoulder with a grimace and followed the other two, catching the tail end of the room tour.  
  
"There's only the one bed, mind," the hotel owner was saying. "But this suite is big enough for a decent couch so one of you can sleep on that."  
  
'That'll probably be for me then,' Nora thought to herself with a shake of her head and carried on past them into the bedroom. Behind her she heard pleasantries and reassurances dripping from Nikki's lips with a comfort and familiarity Nora could never properly muster for cases like these, while Nora surveyed the room and its one rather expansive but very solo bed sitting centre stage.  
  
"Don't worry, I told her we like to share," Nikki murmured throatily in Nora's ear, breaking her silent contemplation and making her jump.  
  
"You told her - wait, she's going to think...," Nora gaped but Nikki just smirked. "You told her we were a couple?!"  
  
Nikki just shrugged and gave an airy sigh. "She saw me flirting with Leon down in reception and seemed a little jealous-"  
  
"Of you? Miss Flirting-For-A-Room-Upgrade making someone jealous? That doesn't sound likely at all," Nora rolled her eyes while Nikki continued chattering away over the top of her.  
  
"- we might need her help after all, who knows how long it'll take to get a lead. Oh, my bag! You bought it in, thank you."  
  
Nora couldn't quite stop herself smiling as Nikki's eyes lit up at the sight of her Louis Vou-whatever carefully laid out on the bed, even if being left behind to be a sweaty, overburdened bag carrier still smarted just a little.  
  
"Yes, well, apparently someone has to play the indentured servant in this sting."  
  
Nora bit back her smile as she spoke and shrugged, popping her hands into her back pockets and hunching her shoulders, but Nikki just gazed back serenely without rising to the bait. A small smile was playing about her lips, and then suddenly she flung her arms around Nora and pressed her lips against her cheek, making Nora grunt softly in surprise and stagger back a step.  
  
"Thank you," she said sincerely, face close enough to Nora's that she could feel the warmth of her breath making the spot Nikki had kissed tingle.  
  
Nora's breath stuttered, just a little, and her hands seemed to come up automatically against her will to hover just shy of Nikki's hips. "You're- you're welcome."

  


........

  


"It was like you could see right through me." Nora sighed, shifting lazily in Nikki's lap.  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"That night, in that creaky old hotel on the edge of town. Our first case together..."  
  
"Our first Christmas together, too."  
  
Nikki's hand resumed stroking through Nora's hair and glass clinked somewhere above Nora's head, rousing her enough to make an indignant noise.  
  
"Hey, why do you get to keep drinking but I don't?"  
  
Nikki's didn't answer but her chuckle was throaty with alcohol and amusement, nudging Nora into drifting back to half dozing memories.

  


........

  


"Don't be ridiculous, you can't sleep on that old couch."  
  
"Oh, really?" Nora cocked a hip and raised an eyebrow. Truth be told, she didn't really want to sleep on the dusty old thing anyway. It looked as worn and poorly kept as the beautiful if dingy old house that they were staying in. But sleeping in bed next to her smoking hot new partner?  
  
No, probably not for the best.  
  
"No, you can't. Ida is going to come bustling in here in the morning with a breakfast tray and you'll ruin our cover if you're sleeping out there like you're anyone other than my girlfriend. Now get on in here," Nikki said, pulling back the covers with a flourish.  
  
Feeling sheepish and just a little bit cornered, Nora carefully slid between the covers.  
  
'Be cool, dammit,' she scolded herself. Nikki couldn't possibly begin to guess that Nora was deeply closeted and even more deeply attracted to a colleague she'd met only a week ago. It was just a bed, and just sleeping on a mattress next to a totally unremarkable body.  
  
Nora had this.  
  
"Much better," Nikki said, satisfaction clear in her voice as she flicked off the lamp and wriggled further down under the covers. In the process she shifted across to the middle of the bed, curling up on her side barely a hands breadth from Nora and smiling at her like the cat that had got the cream.  
  
Nora so did not have this.

  


........

  


"You were tormenting me," Nora insisted loudly. "It was deliberate and sadistic and rather like very slow, very pleasant torture." Rousing herself enough to shift onto her back, legs almost singe-worthily close to the flames so she could look upward, Nora gazed happily up at Nikki's very indulgent looking face  
  
"Well you were a very pretty almost-stranger who I was oddly and immediately attracted to, and there _was_ only one bed. A girl only has so much self restraint."  
  
"Torment," Nora insisted, groping clumsily behind them for the whiskey bottle without breaking away from Nikki's gaze, and then holding the bottle triumphantly aloft before rolling back upright. "I barely slept a wink that night, or the one after that."  
  
"We didn't even catch the perp," Nikki said, voice soft with memory as her eyes drifted down to Nora's mouth.  
  
"After working on Christmas in that drafty old house and everything," Nora agreed, moving in. "What a waste of time that was."  
  
"Oh, I don't know," Nikki said, closing the gap with a soft kiss. "Watching you squirm up close had its benefits."  
  
"Merry Christmas to Nikki, then."  
  
Nikki hummed in happy agreement against Nora's lips, and then shouted with laughter as Nora pulled her down to the rug before kissing her senseless.  
  
'Merry Christmas to me, more like,' Nora thought.  
  
  



End file.
